North Wales council staff took more than 1,000 years worth of sick days

Council staff took up to 266,000 days off in the last three years.
Pic: Lewis Whyld/PA Wire

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Council workers in North Wales have taken the equivalent of more than a 1000 years in man hours off sick in the last three years.

One member of staff would have had to have begun work as far back as the Viking invasions of Britain to make up the 266,000 days on which people were too ill to work.

At Anglesey council, staff are taking an average of 12 days a year off work - one of the highest rates of any North Wales council.

More than 266,000 days were lost through illness at six councils in North and Mid Wales last year.

And as in previous years, most sickness absences were caused by stress and unspecified back pain.

With cash-strapped councils reducing staff by not replacing jobs, Unison union secretary Silyn Roberts had previously warned that the problem of absences was “escalating” as it was placing more stress and worry on the remaining staff sharing an increased workload.

Mr Roberts said: “We have 11 homes for the elderly and 115 schools. One of the benefits is that the council does not have to pay extra for a carer to fill in for one that is sick or to pay sick pay, for example. It costs £120 a day for a supply teacher. The numbers have fallen in Gwynedd over the past four years and are some of the best in Wales.”

Figures collected by the Daily Post show the total days lost by the six North Wales councils - Anglesey, Gwynedd, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham - together with Powys in Mid Wales was a massive 266,589 - that’s without figures for Conwy and Ceredigion which were not supplied.

The figures - used by the Welsh Government as “performance indicators” - showed Anglesey Council workers had the worst record with 32,143 days lost in 2012/13 - down to 29,109 in 2013/14.

In 2012-13, Anglesey workers were taking an average of 14 days off. Now it is down to 12 and coming down.

An Anglesey council spokesperson said: “Reducing sickness absence levels is a priority for Anglesey’s executive committee and council as a whole. In recent years, we have undertaken a great deal of work to tackle this. Steps have included employing a sickness absence co-ordinator since April 2013, monitoring and co-ordinating information on sickness absences; mandatory referrals to Occupational Health for long term sickness (4 weeks) and treating work-related stress and back problems as well as others.”

Gwynedd council Resources cabinet member Cllr Peredur Jenkins said: “Once again this year, Gwynedd has been awarded with the Corporate Health Standard gold award by the Welsh Government to recognise the good work carried out by employers to conduct activities to promote health and initiatives to promote their staff’s health and wellbeing.”

The council promotes workers’ health by helping them to stop smoking, promoting fitness and physical health, vocational health, anti-bullying and help with emotional health.

It set up an internal Occupational Health Unit in 2008 which now provides an advisory service to other authorities such as Anglesey council and Snowdonia National Park Authority.